


The Fan

by useyourlove



Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-07
Updated: 2011-12-07
Packaged: 2017-10-27 00:57:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/289814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/useyourlove/pseuds/useyourlove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On security detail, Kara meets a boy with a chicken and a case of Viper Pilot Hero Worship. She shares with Lee.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Fan

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [the-applecart](http://the-applecart.livejournal.com) [Challenge 002](http://the-applecart.livejournal.com/1886.html). Originally posted [here](http://the-applecart.livejournal.com/1886.html?thread=67166#t67166). [Also posted on LJ at wartytoads](http://wartytoads.livejournal.com/9885.html).  
>  **A/N:** Conceivably takes place anytime in Seasons One or Two.

"Lee!" she had a gleeful look on her face and he knew instantly that she had stolen something, broken something, or done physical harm to someone. Oh, he was so not in the mood for her today. "Lee, seriously." She closed the hatch to his office behind her with a chirp and twirled it shut.

"What is it, Starbuck?"

She was grinning from ear to ear.

"Look."

She reached down her tanks and for one breathless moment he thought she was about to flash him. His heart stopped. That would be so like her--to do something completely ridiculous like that. He froze. He was _so_ putting her on report for this.

But she fiddled for a moment and then--ever so gingerly--pulled her hand back out holding a little brown egg in her fingers. She dove back into her shirt, tongue set between her teeth and eyes staring skyward as she searched. She pulled out another egg--a perfect matched pair. She held them before her like the lost treasures of Kobol, her grin so wide he wondered that her face didn't split.

"Eggs!"

His face was completely blank. And then the rage set in. He stood, hands on his desk, and whispered fiercely.

"Are you in the black market? Do you have any idea how dangerous... Starbuck, I order you to get rid of those eggs immediately."

She stood there, dumbstruck. "Frak no! A kid gave them to me."

"A kid? A _kid_? Who, someone like Boxey? In with the wrong crowd? Shoved from ship to ship and finally some little toady for a thug? What did you trade for them, Kara? Hm? Your vitamins? A bar of soap?"

"A kid! A kid on the _Adriatic_ gave them to me!"

"And just what were you doing on the _Adriatic_?" This was just what he needed today: Starbuck in the brig. Frak.

"I got put on security detail!" Her voice was rising.

"Security detail. Right. Some kind of--"

"Lee, it was a routine security sweep for fleet procedure and--"

"--bogus market run to drop off supplies no doubt."

"--you put me on the rotation, for frak's sake!"

They stood there, breathing heavy, trying to figure out what they had been screaming over top of each other for.

Kara spoke first.

"Frak, Lee. It was a kid with a wireless and a chicken, all right? If you don't want the gods damned thing I'll eat them both myself." She turned on her heel and hadn't even made it to the door yet when he dropped his pen with a clatter on the desk and grunted.

"Starbuck, wait." He rubbed his face in his hands for a few moments before dropping his head to the desk. "Wait, wait. I'm sorry. I'm tired."

"Who isn't?"

"So this kid? Tell me again. What happened now?"

"I was running through the protocol checklist with the Captain and this kid walks up to me. He says 'I know you, you're Starbuck.'

"And I looked at him and I said 'Yeah, what about it?'

"Kid says, 'I like you. You fly Vipers.'

"'Yeah, what about it?'

"He holds out his hand and he's got this egg in it and he waits until I put my hand out and drops it in. 'I've got another for Apollo,' he says. 'I like Apollo too. He's your friend. I listen to the wireless every day.' So he pulls another little egg out of his pocket and hands it to me and he says 'Thank you.' Then he grins and runs away.

"Captain said his name was Tommy Djilas and that he has a chicken he keeps as a pet and a wireless he always has to his ear. Says he's always under foot but he makes a killing off the chicken eggs and is madly in love with Viper Pilots. You and me in particular."

"And you hid them in your shirt because--?"

"Like I'm just gonna walk through the halls of _Galactica_ with two eggs in my hand. Are you crazy?"

He rubbed at his tired eyes once more and gave an exhausted grunt. "Right. Right."

"Let's eat 'em!"

"Kara, we can't."

"Why not?"

"It's not fair for us to eat eggs-- _real_ eggs!--when everyone else has to eat the daily slop."

"Frak that! The kid gave 'em to me. They're mine. Ours!"

"We can't."

"Look. I put my ass on the line every day out there. You and me and all the rest of us--we go out to fight. We go out to _die_ , Lee. And if that caught the heart of some kid with a wireless who happened to have a chicken, I'm not going to upset that kid by not eating the eggs he gave me!"

Lee didn't say what he was thinking. He couldn't even have articulated it if he tried. He looked at her passionate face--so fierce that it was comical given the situation--and thought there was a lot more to why the kid had given Kara the eggs and nobody else.

"So let's share them with the pilots."

"Frak no, Lee, that's like half a bite per person! The kid gave them to you and me! They're ours! We get to eat 'em!"

He sighed, but he saw there was no getting through to her. She thought maybe she'd won.

"Hand 'em over."

She looked wary for a moment. "No."

"We'll go to the mess and cook them. I'll cook them. Hand 'em over. No one will say anything to me."

She cocks her eyebrow at him skeptically, rolls her eyes, and sets about tucking them back into her bra.

Walking together down the halls he can't help but laugh at how tenderly she's walking, as if stomping around like Starbuck will somehow crack the eggs she's got nestled safely on her boobs. She's literally moving like she's on egg shells.

"Kara, _stop_ that."

"Stop what?"

"Walking like that."

"Like what?"

"You won't break the damn things."

"And what if I do?" she said, eyes suddenly lit with a challenge. "You gonna lick 'em off?"

She cackled at the blush that came with his smirk.

They commandeered one of the stoves in the back, furtive enough that everyone was trying to glance over their shoulders looking disinterested.

"All right, hand 'em over now."

She dug around and produced them both.

"How you want 'em?"

"I dunno. I usually had 'em scrambled with cheese. But," she shrugged. He understood. No cheese.

"Sunny side up?"

She shrugged again. He took one from her and cracked it one handed on the pan they'd found, dropping it onto the hot skillet and chucking the shell expertly into the garbage can across the aisle.

"Huh. All right. I'm impressed."

He took the other with a wink and repeated the process. The eggs were beginning to sizzle and whiten.

"Now I'm really impressed. What the frak, Apollo? You've never cooked for me before."

The set of his shoulders was more relaxed than Kara had ever seen it. He had a goofy grin on his face and she didn't know if it was from the spatula in his hand or the heady aroma of the food he was cooking or what.

"I have so!"

"Nuh-uh. I cooked for you like once a week and so did Zak. You never cooked for us."

"I did so! I cooked for you every time you came over."

"Well, I never saw it happen so it didn't happen. You never told me you could cook! I thought I was feeding the starving bachelor!"

He shot her an incredulous look and her facade broke, laughing. "Oh, Lords. You cooked all that? All that... and I'm fighting with you over two eggs at the end of the worlds." She laughed louder and he bumped his hip against hers with a smile, trying to shut her up before they attracted any more attention.

"Here," he said. "Get a plate. They're ready." She found a tray and held it out for him as he carefully slid the perfectly white wobbling things out of the pan.

"Forks," she said. He set down the pan, turned off the burner, and hunted down two forks. He handed her one and she took it, setting the tray on the counter next to them. They looked each other in the eye and then dove in.

"Slowly," she said. "Last eggs we'll probably ever get."

He put a bite in his mouth and savored, eyes closed, face orgasmic.

"Need bread," she said.

"Bread. Yes. For the yolks," he agreed. She turned around and disappeared back into a store closet, returning with a slice of bread. She tore it in half and handed him a piece.

"I'm not even going to ask."

"Good," she said. "You don't want to know."

They cleaned the plate, making little noises all the while. The mess was murmuring now. Someone had discovered their secret. But they were beyond caring.

When they were done chewing they took deep breaths, eyes still closed. He let his hand rest over top of hers on the counter and she didn't pull away. She let the warmth steal through her fingers and she smiled.

*

 

The two were on CAP late that night, circling the Fleet alertly for hours, throwing back and forth their usual banter. The comm went quiet for a while. About ten minutes. With Starbuck that meant she was probably dead.

"Kara?"

"Hm?"

"Why'd you bring me that egg?"

"What?"

"You didn't have to. Why did you?"

"Kid said it was yours. Said nothing goes together like Starbuck and Apollo. Said he didn't want to make you jealous."

"You left that part of the conversation out the first time." There was a smile in his voice.

The comm was fuzzy with static for a moment in place of her words. "Yeah, well. Didn't think it was important."

"So." She waits for the blade to fall. "When are you seeing your boyfriend again?"

"All right. Can it."

"No, Kara, I mean it. If he's going to feed us like this I think I can get behind this. You want me to go bully him around?"

"Stop it."

"I can show him how jealous I am."

"Shut up, all right? Sweet Arrow of Apollo, Apollo, you are _really_ \--"

"Lovable?"

"I'm going to make you cook for me every day if you don't shut up."

"Yeah? I'd like to see you try."

She tsked.

"Bring me eggs from your boyfriend and I will."

"Can it already!"

He grinned, the taste of the real food still rolling around in his mouth. Nothing goes together like Starbuck and Apollo. And eggs, of course. Can't forget the eggs.


End file.
